Whew! Our first shrine. Tokyo is amazing that way. Amidst all the industrial buildings you can find serene, beautiful temples hidden almost everywhere.
The incense, located at the entrance to the temple, is for cleansing your body and spirit. Move the smoke over your affected parts for healing. (Where do I begin? I went with just a general cleansing.)
In Japan, anything written is beautiful.
Gargoyles protect the temple.
The details of each structure were pretty awesome.
On to the next! A kind woman rushed up to us and communicated that we needed to walk around the building to another location to see something amazing. I don't know if she thought we were lost, or if she was just being helpful and didn't want us to miss anything. Given how helpful everyone was in Japan, I'm going with the latter.
Inside the building that you had to enter in order to reach this garden was a museum, housing incredibly old sculptures and paintings. Photography wasn't allowed, so what we saw will remain a secret.
Cherry blossoms have begun blooming across Tokyo. This is just the beginning of the week, so whatever moments of beauty we felt privy to on this day were set to be demolished every subsequent day as the blossoms opened further all around the city. Hanami (flower watching) begins.
2 comments:
We had our own little Hanami (6th annual) on Sunday here in Boston. A holiday consisting of a picnic, friends, and flowers is pretty awesome. Chris took & uploaded these photos to my account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/madprime/sets/72157626576599548/
I hope to visit Japan someday! Enjoy the blossoms -- it looks beautiful. :)
- Madeleine
Thank you for sharing your beautiful images of Japan. I really love the architecture and the cherry blossoms.
Post a Comment